Giants’ women solid early but falter against Redbacks

Goldfields Giants’ women’s NBL1 squad held their own for a half, but fell away when Jhazmin Joson and Anne Zipser shouldered most of the workload in a 102-63 road loss against the Perth Redbacks on Sunday.

Joson scored a team-high 24 points, but was restricted to just 20 minutes after she fouled out in the third quarter.

Zipser contributed 16 points and five rebounds, but Lawrin Tipene’s nine points off the bench was the next-best return as the Giants pulled up short in their bid for a second win.

Natalie Chou led the Redbacks with 27 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and five steals, and teammate Anneli Maley hauled in 21 rebounds.

Goldfields were outscored 50-26 in the second half.

“Perth have a great running game and we just couldn’t maintain that intensity in defence,” Giants coach Jaymi Worthington said.

“Once we got a couple of girls into foul trouble, it became really hard.

“On a positive note, we get them again (at home) this weekend, and hopefully this time we can maintain the effort across the entire game.

“But we need everyone firing, as opposed to just one or two.

“If we have at least three or four players firing at the same time, we have a real chance.”

Ashlee Sidebottom was unavailable at the weekend, but makes her return this Saturday.

However, team officials are still waiting for an official assessment of Aimee Borchet’s injured knee after she underwent an MRI in Perth on Friday.

The Giants are two games outside the top eight in 11th position.